Thursday, March 30, 2017

A while ago I shared that I was planning on quilting my baby boy a blanket this year. Well, after quite a bit of online window-shopping, I finally made some decisions, placed the order, and waited (very impatiently) for the mail to arrive. And I'm happy to announce that the package full of beautiful goodies arrived safe and sound. This is the fabric I settled on:

I got a charm pack of Come Dive with Me, a seriously adorable fabric range. I also got a yard of plain white fabric to coordinate, some batting, and a lovely navy blue minky fabric for the backing. I had found a great pattern that sounds super easy here. Armed with all my goodies, I dusted off my sewing machine and started:

Like I said, super easy pattern. No weird cutting. It uses every single one of the 42 squares in the charm pack, and all I have to do is cut up the white fabric into different lengths. So I've sewed the center bits together with the inner border, and then I pieced the next few strips together. The second stage will be to sew that all together.

It's looking so cute already! I'm so happy with it. I've still got a long way to go - the finished quilt will have three layers: patterned, white, patterned, white, patterned, and then one more white border. But I've given myself a realistic goal: the end of the year. I'm hoping to get this quilt ready for the Little One's birthday in December. I can get this done by then, right?

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Hello, gorgeous people! How lovely to have you all drop by. I hope your weather is treating you better than ours is treating us. It's been alternatively raining/sand-storming the last couple of weeks. Our street is covered in mud right now. Lots of fun!

All right, here's some stitching. I've been working on my latest Little Sheep Virtues, Kindness. This was last week's progress, at 600 stitches:

And this week's, at 700 stitches:

I've gotten more done on the border, finished the leaves on the tree, and started stitching the little orange hearts. Progress is slow but sure!

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Hi folks! I'm typing this up as my son naps beside me (he absolutely refuses to nap in his crib - has to be our bed or his car seat!) and a dust storm rages outside. Very bizarre weather. We went out for a walk earlier and it was quite hot but insanely windy. And now this!

Anyway, time for the March Gifted Gorgeousness SAL check-in. This is the brain-child of Jo from Serendipitous Stitching. We stitch on something that's been gifted to us through
exchanges or giveaways, whether a pattern, kit, fabric, floss, whatever,
and post on the 15th of the month. I'm a day late, I know, but I've had a really busy week! My parents were here for a few days, so they got all the energy and attention that my son wasn't already monopolizing!

Last month I started Let it Snow, from Hands On Design. This was a gift from Emma of Emma's Bloglet during our last exchange. Here's my progress this month:

I finished the two half snowflakes on either side of the text and got some stitching done on the border. Those of you who know me well know that borders bore me to tears, so I like to do them in small doses.

I keep trying to get a decent photo so you can really see the color changes in the Hydrangea floss I'm using, but I'm not sure I've achieved it. It's really so pretty!

All right, this post has literally taken me all day to write. I took the pictures twelve hours ago! The baby's in bed, so I've finally managed to take a shower, and now I'm going to veg in front of the TV until my eyes cross. Yay!

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing well. I've been running around all week trying to get things ready for my parents, who are coming for a visit tomorrow! I'm so excited. I have to get up early, take the Little One to swim class, came back home, give him a bath, and then run off to the airport. I have such a tiny little window of time to do all this before they land, but I'll figure it out.

Anyway! You're here to see the stitching, and so the stitching is what I shall show you. I'm making slow progress on Kindness, my latest Little Sheep. Here it was last week at 400 stitches:

And here it is this week at 500 stitches:

So since my last update I've stitched some more on the border, finished the grass under the tree, and added those white bits on top of "Kindness."

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Stitching Friends

Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied.

~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1859

Sheep Virtues SAL

"Little Sheep Virtues." Designed by Diane Williams for Little House Needleworks. Stitched on 28 ct. Coffee Jobelan with DMC threads